The gamescom congress is Germany's largest congress revolving around digital games, and acts as an interface with other cultural and creative branches, as well as with the digital economy. Koelnmesse organises the gamescom congress in cooperation with the BIU, the association of the computer and video games industry in Germany. Both the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Cologne are sponsoring the congress. A central element of gamescom -the world's largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games.

Economically relevant spill-over effects and cultural questions are increasingly resulting for various branches of the computer and video games industry. The gamescom congress is the German platform that promotes and stimulates the necessary exchange of ideas and controversial discussions in both local and international contexts.

Representatives of the economy, science, society, politics, culture and of course the games industry will this year devote themselves to a number of the most varied questions in five focus areas: •KNOWLEDGE: BETTER RESEARCH, BETTER CARE (RHEINSAAL 1)•BUSINESS: NEW ROUTINES, NEW OPPORTUNITIES (RHEINSAAL 2)•APITS: THE COMPUTER GAME AS A MULTIFUNCTION TOOL (RHEINSAAL 3)•LEGAL: A PLEA ON BEHALF OF FUN (RHEINSAAL 4)•LIFE: FINALLY ARRIVED? GAMES AND THE MIDDLE OF SOCIETY (RHEINSAAL 5)The gamescom congress offers an exclusive international mixture of high quality speakers and experts, exciting impulses and contacts across branches.